Preparing Your Text

File formats

I prefer Microsoft Word, RTF, or you can email your text.

Submit all text in a single file if possible. Don’t send pieces, changes, etc. in many different emails – this can lead to something being missed. It also makes it difficult to see an overview of how much text there really is.

Spell Check and Proofread BEFORE submitting file. See Proofing section.

File Names

Whether you are submitting photos and text files to the designer, or complete production PDFs to the printer, you should practice good file naming etiquette. Name your files with the artist and/or project title, along with what part it is. For example, if you are submitting production files, you will be submitting “Abbey Road Traycard.pdf”. If you are submitting photos and text to a designer, you should name your files like “abbey road cover pic.jpg” “abbey road text.doc”, etc.

Read: Writing CD liner notes

A few quick tips as you enter your text:

Don’t worry about formatting (making it look pretty) – that’s my job. In fact, it can even make it harder for me when I have to clean out your formatting codes.

Use a SINGLE SPACE after punctuation.

Don’t use a tab to indent paragraphs. My program automatically indents paragraphs if I tell it to.

Don’t use spaces in place of tabs.

Don’t format tables or multi column lists: Type in a single column and then note that you want it in columns. If you tab over for a new column, I literally have to cut and paste the text out of that because it doesn’t flow the same in my program. Very time consuming and can lead to things ending up in the wrong order.

DO insert comments such as “for traycard” or “put band photo near this” to guide me.

DO mention items not included that you plan submit later so that I know to leave space (ex. “Thank you’s – 2 to 3 short paragraphs – to come by Friday”).